A Cactus League sales tax?

D-Backs owner offers alternative to Cubs plan

by Laurie Roberts - Feb. 13, 2010 12:00 AMThe Arizona Republic

Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick is throwing out the first pitch of the spring by the hometown team, proposing a new countywide sales tax dedicated to the Cactus League. A temporary tax, he says, could not only fund a new Chicago Cubs complex but ensure that spring training remains strong in the Valley for the next 20 years.

But first, voters would have to sign off on the deal.

"I am absolutely not for any legislatively (mandated) program," he said, a swipe at the Save-the-Cubs campaign under way at the Legislature. "I want the public to have a chance. In this economy especially, Laurie, I think it's incredibly important that the public voice be heard."

Which, of course, is not at all the plan currently afoot at the Capitol, where it's still a state secret even how much the Cubs deal would cost.

On Friday, I met with Kendrick and Diamondbacks President Derrick Hall, who were, shall we say, less than pleased with my Wednesday column suggesting that they were, ah, to put it delicately, greedy. The two of them said their staunch opposition to a league-wide ticket surcharge to fund new digs for the Cubs has nothing to do with greed and everything to do with basic fairness and with the fact that it doesn't solve the real problem, which is this:

We're out of money. For the Cactus League, that is. (Technically, we're out of money for everything, but that's a story for another day.)

Car-rental tax receipts for the next 25 years are already spoken for, eaten up by ever-fancier spring sports palaces - with nothing set aside to polish up or replace the stuff we've already built.

The problem in sports is that yesterday's palace is today's piece of junk and if you're a team with a lease that's about to expire, well, let's just say you're probably considering relocation to another kingdom.

Cue Kendrick and his sales-tax idea: "If the Cactus League is important to our state and I'm looking at it beyond the Cubs because that's my state of mind, maybe we ought to come up with what would the funding be needed to make the Cactus League viable to cover all the existing teams and their expiring deals, etc., etc., for the next 20 years."

I'm guessing his suggestion will land with a splat at the Legislature, where it took our leaders a year to work up the nerve to ask voters to approve a temporary sales tax this May to fund vital services.

House Majority Leader John McComish wasn't exactly jumping at Kendrick's idea. "That would be a general tax on the voters, and I think that right now, they're burdened enough," said the Ahwatukee Republican, who is running Operation Cub Rescue.

McComish says his bill - imposing a ticket surcharge and raising the tax on car rentals - would provide money not only to fund two-thirds of a Cubs complex ($58 million) but would also provide "significant revenue" to help out other teams in need of better quarters.

There's no way to judge how significant "significant" is because McComish won't say how much the new taxes would be. Presumably, he'll have to pony up the details by Wednesday, when the bill gets its first hearing.

Kendrick and Hall are skeptical about how much would really be left over for other teams, as is everyone else I've talked to outside of Mesa who is involved with the Cactus League. They're also not sold on claims by Mesa's hired economic guru that the Cubs account for a third of the league's $350 million in annual economic impact.

Still, no one wants the Cubbies to pack up for Florida. If the Legislature is not yet ready to address the long-term problem facing the Cactus League, Kendrick and Hall say there are options other than foisting a Cubs surcharge onto fans of other teams. (Interestingly, D-Backs and Rockies fans wouldn't have to pay the surcharge because they'll be on tribal land, which basically blows my greed theory out of the water.)

Kendrick and Hall say Mesa could, for example, sell land it owns in Pinal County to fund the stadium, or the Cubs could reopen talks with the Gila River Indian Community or one of the other tribes.

The Diamondbacks-Rockies complex, they note, won't cost taxpayers a dime. (The Salt River Community on Wednesday released a statement saying that, contrary to news reports, no federal stimulus money is being used.)

Kendrick and Hall say the Cubs could easily get a similar deal, leaving taxpayers out of the equation.

"They would have at least five suitors that would come forward," Hall said. "That would mean probably having to leave Mesa, but if it's for the good of Arizona . . . "